This invention relates generally to fluid flow devices and, more particularly, to a “smart” fluid flow apparatus for use in managing fluid flow through a conduit and having remote shut off via wireless communication, manual shutoff, and a failsafe valve closure assembly with battery backup.
Broken or damaged water lines cause more damage to homes than any other household events. One break can flood an entire home. Frozen water lines in homes while owners are away are also a big problem as nobody knows a water line is broken for weeks. Seismic activity from an earthquake also has the potential to cause a broken line and, again, a flooded basement. Even if a homeowner has notice of a water leak inside the house, finding the main shutoff valve may be very difficult to find and operate. In addition, a leaking pipe in a residence can be a disaster because a homeowner, whether home or away, may be unaware of it.
Various devices and patent proposals are known which monitor the flow of water through a pipe so as to determine if fluid is flowing normally and report data to a user, such as through a display on the monitoring apparatus or even through remote communications. Although presumably effective for their intended purposes, the existing devices and systems for monitoring fluid flow do not fully integrate monitoring fluid flow by comparison with a flow history record, with temperature, seismic, and moisture-on-the-floor sensors, and with a communications module that wirelessly notifies a home owner of fluid flow irregularities and receives instructions from the notified homeowner regarding whether to close flow from the fluid conduit.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a fluid flow management apparatus that provides solutions to each of the disadvantages of the prior art described above.